This post is a commentary on historian Walter Scheidel’s book, Escape from Rome. It’s a stunningly original analysis of a topic that has long fascinated scholars like me: how did Europe come to create the modern world? His answer is this: Europe became the cauldron of modernity and the dominant power in the world because … Continue reading How the Fall of Empire Spurred the Rise of Modernity — and Parallels with the Rise of US Higher Ed